The Boy Who Lived Again
by Seymour Glass
Summary: the final chapter of the Harry Potter series


The Boy Who Lived Again  
  
Harry felt that nothing and no one would ever be able to console him.  
But people tried. Dumbledore had asked Harry to enter his office, for what the headmaster had assumed would be a reassuring conversation, like those that had followed many trying events in the past. Even when Sirius, Harry's final link to his infant happiness with his parents, had been brutally murdered by the Death Eaters, Dumbledore's soothing voice had had an effect.  
But this was different. How could he have been so terribly ignorant? He had in effect lost the three people that had meant the most to him.  
Harry had behaved exactly how, to put it in Voldemort's words, "fools who love" are expected to. He had fallen right into the Dark Lord's trap. He had fallen in love with Ginny Weasley.  
When the auror Kingsley Shacklebolt had killed Sirius's murderess, Bellatrix Lestrange, the previous year (though it seemed like ages), he and his fellow members of the Order of the Phoenix had known that another would rise up through the ranks of Death Eaters as Voldemort's closest and most powerful supporter.  
But it was unimaginable that she would come from the clan of wizards that had become an orphaned Harry's own family.  
Thoughts of Ron ran through his head. His best friend's tremendous courage still amazed him. This was the first time Harry had been able to think of the tragedy in weeks. Only now he understood exactly what must have happened.  
  
The prophecy said that there had to be a final battle between him and Voldemort that would end in a murder. Though by his seventh year Harry was a tremendously powerful wizard, he was simply no match for the Dark Lord. Harry was therefore hidden within the dungeons of Hogwarts for secret lessons with Dumbledore himself. To keep The Boy Who Lived safe during these months, a secret keeper was needed. The headmaster was the obvious choice.  
But Dumbledore refused to make himself the secret keeper, knowing that Voldemort would be after him next. Therefore, the headmaster made a difficult decision, choosing the wizard who was the most loyal to Harry. Ron Weasley became the secret keeper for the last hope of the Order of the Phoenix.  
Ron was therefore the only one who could reveal to Voldemort where Harry was located. Even Hermione, Harry's other best friend, and Ginny, the girl Harry had fallen for, did not know.  
But through a bit of clever magic Ginny and Harry were able to converse by owl. The letters became more and more personal and passionate. Finally, in the beginning of April Harry let slip that Ron was his secret keeper.  
  
Ginny had, by this point in time, become no longer the kind, spirited young redhead she had been when Harry had first met her. Cleverly keeping this exterior, she had begun serving a master more terrible and powerful than anyone could imagine. And he knew the feelings his prophesized equal felt for his young servant.  
On one April night an exuberant Ginny, happy to give the Dark Lord the information he needed most, had used powerful invisibility charms to leave the Hogwarts castle. From Hogsmeade she apparated to the Riddle House, headquarters for a man who was the symbol of evil to many who had grown up fearing him.  
"Master, I have some wonderful information that will please you."  
"Continue at once, Weasley."  
"The foolish Potter has revealed to me that my brother is the secret keeper for his whereabouts."  
"Excellent." Voldemort laughed in his eerily high-pitched manner. Then he gave Ginny careful instructions.  
  
It was late at nigh. Ron and Hermione Granger were alone in the common room studying. Ron was very nervous. There were only a few months left at Hogwarts, and he knew he would have to do something soon or he would regret it very much.  
Hermione moaned. She was very stressed out over her upcoming N.E.W.T. exams.  
"Ron, I feel absolutely horrible."  
"Er...I hope you feel better. Good night." He proceeded over to the stairs, and then turned back around.  
"Wait," Ron said. "Is there anything I can do to...um...help?"  
Then, before either of them really knew what had happened, their friendship became a little closer.  
  
A euphoric Ron walked up the stairs. He had finally gotten the courage to act on feelings he had first noticed when Hermione had danced with Viktor Krum at the Yule Ball. He felt like he could do anything.  
But no one could be prepared for what happened when his pillow, now a portkey, transported him across England to the Riddle House.  
  
"Welcome to my humble home, Ronald Weasley."  
Ron looked into those slit-like red eyes and screamed.  
"Come now, there's no reason to be afraid. This could be very painless. But it also could not, if you don't cooperate. Just to prove my point, Crucio!"  
Ron had never felt anything more painful in his entire life.  
  
Harry's scar stung more ferociously than it had since his fifth year. He felt he had to talk to Dumbledore about it, so he used his invisibility cloak to walk up to the Headmaster's office.  
Suddenly he became aware of being followed. Harry saw the person who he had been thinking about during these long months of term. She walked back to the Gryffindor common room, which was now completely empty. Harry knew he could trust Ginny, so he took of the cloak.  
"Harry!"  
"Ginny! I've missed you so much."  
Unaware that they were not the first couple in the common room tonight, they kissed, he completely sincere, she serving his archenemy, the enemy of all good people in the world.  
Harry was distracted from the pain in his scar.  
  
"No! I won't tell you!"  
"Foolish boy. Crucio!"  
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"  
Voldemort laughed. It was a tremendous pleasure for him to hurt those that Potter loved.  
The pain continued, impossible to adjust to. Ron wanted more than anything in the world than to end this pain by telling He Who Must Not Be Named what he needed. But he realized that some things were much bigger than him. There was no way he was going to let Harry die when he had the power to stop it.  
"You have now lasted longer under torture than even the Longbottoms did. But soon you too will be reduced to a babbling idiot. Crucio!"  
Ron knew that this was much worse than dying could ever be. But it was still better than his best friend's death.  
  
Ginny said good night to Harry and returned to her bedroom. Her master had said her brother would be destroyed by now.  
Harry's scar hurt even more than before. He realized Ron was in danger. This summer the Order had realized where Voldemort's headquarters were, though there was no point in going there because they all knew very well that only Harry could kill him. Harry ran out of the castle and apparated to the Riddle House.  
  
Voldemort was faced with something he could not understand himself-a friend's love. Reluctantly he realized there would be no information from Ron Weasley. He would have to be destroyed. "Evada Kedavra!"  
Ron died happily, knowing he had won.  
Suddenly Harry burst into the room, wand in hand, ready to defend his best friend's life. Then, looking down, he realized that there was no life to defend. Tears filled his eyes. First his parents, then Cedric, then Sirius, then Hagrid last year. But this was somehow worse than any of those.  
"I see this was no loss at all Potter. After all, you in the flesh are a far greater prize than knowledge of your location."  
Harry, consumed by grief and anger, said nothing.  
"You knew it had to be this way. In the end, compassion must always bow to power."  
"Expelliarmus!" Harry screamed. Voldemort's wand flew out of his hands  
"Accio wand!" Voldemort was armed again.  
The Dark Lord and Harry Potter, the Dark Lord and the Boy Who Lived, stood armed and glaring at each other.  
  
It was 5:00 A.M. Ron and Hermione had made plans to meet for more studying at this early hour, but he wasn't there. When she Hermione checked his dormitory, Ron was also missing. She was very alarmed, so she decided to go tell Ginny, a fellow member of the Order (or so she thought).  
Hermione went to Ginny in tears. Thinking that it no longer mattered that she kept her loyalty to Dark Lord a secret, Ginny laughed. "Today the Dark Lord is victorious. And if it wasn't for my help, he would never have been able to torture my disgusting brother into telling him the Secret!"  
An astonished, furious Hermione gave Ginny no time to react. "Evada Kedavra!" she cursed. The traitor had been destroyed.  
  
"Evada Kedavra!" screamed both Voldemort and Harry Potter instantaneously. The spells collided in mid air-both wands had been made with feathers from Fawkes the phoenix. Harry's scar ached horribly, but that was commonplace for him. What no one expected was the identical scar on Voldemort's forehead.  
Both wizards fell backward from the tremendous pain. But Harry, more accustomed to it, was the first to recover. He knew what must be done.  
"Evada Kedavra!" Voldemort, the most evil wizard of all time, who had killed almost everyone who had ever been close to Harry, was dead, never to return.  
  
As Harry thought over these events, a grief for something perhaps more important to him than just Ron surfaced: the seemingly invincible bond of friendship between Ron, Hermione, and himself had been broken. They would never see Ron again, Harry was only a shell of what he was before despite his victory from Voldemort, and from what Neville told him Hermione was in just as bad a shape as he was. Of course neither of them would be prosecuted for their use of Unforgivable curses. But the rancid aftertaste of murder still remained with them.  
Neither of them was in any state to attend classes, but they still could have seen each other, maybe even comforted each other even a little bit over their friend's death. But they didn't. Maybe Hermione blamed Harry for Ron's death, he didn't know. But he couldn't have blamed her if she felt that way. He blamed himself.  
Perhaps committing murder and the death of your best friend just aren't the things anyone wants to talk about, even if someone else happens to be in a similar situation. Anyway, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger didn't speak to each other in those last few months of term, at the graduation from Hogwarts, at the End of Term Feast, on the Hogwarts Express back to London, or at the makeup N.E.W.T. exams held for them in July. And they wouldn't for three years.  
  
That summer Dumbledore, having overseen the most tumultuous seven years in Hogwarts history, decided to retire, choosing the longtime Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall as his successor. This left a vacancy in the position of Transfiguration teacher, and no one was more qualified for the job than the brilliant, 18-year old witch, Hermione Granger, who was becoming more and more like her predecessor every day.  
  
There was no need for Harry to return to Number 4 Privet Drive anymore. With part of his inherited fortune he bought a small house in the very town where his parents had as newlyweds, Godric's Hollow.  
Harry had earned passing grades in all of the N.E.W.T.s he took (even miraculously in potion). Therefore he qualified himself for training to be an auror, and immersed himself in it.  
But the truth was Harry's heart just wasn't in his job. He had always wanted to be an auror, but that had been during wartime. He couldn't see himself spending the rest of his life as a soldier when Voldemort was gone.  
As time went by, he found himself yearning to be in the only place that had ever truly been home to him, the only place where he had ever felt whole. It was his subconscious desire to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
  
Headmistress McGonagall, like Dumbledore before her, had little luck in securing a permanent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Three years after he had graduated Harry Potter applied for the job.  
When McGonagall saw this, she immediately gave it to him. After all, who was better qualified to teach children to defend themselves against evil than the man who had defeated the most evil wizard of all time?  
Harry was extremely happy for the first time since Ron had died. He knew he had found his life's calling.  
  
On September first the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was unpacking his things into the office he had seen so many times in seven different forms. The transfiguration teacher walked through the door. At first the childhood friends just looked at each other. And then...  
"Hello stranger," Harry said.  
"Welcome back," replied Hermione.  
"It's good to be here."  
"Every day I miss him. Seeing you just...brings it all back." Harry could see tears in her eyes.  
Harry felt the same way, but he knew he had to be strong for her, like he had when they had been friends. Maybe they still were. "It's hard for me, too. But I think Ron would've just wanted us to remember all the great times we had with him."  
"I think you're right," Hermione said. "Do you remember the Quidditch World Cup?"  
"The flying car?" he added.  
"The thunderous crowds chanting 'Weasley is our king!'?"  
As the friends embraced Harry felt a burden being lifted from him that was as old as his scar. 


End file.
